GRE Vocabulary Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes.

Recondite

Hard for the average person to understand; little known.

Canonizing

Praise and admire.

Fecklessness

Irresponsible.

Dynamism

Successful, energetic.

Punctiliousness

Attention to detail or good behavior.

Incendiary

Causing anger or violence.

Veracious

Truthful, honest.

Clangorous

Making continuous noise.

Tepid

Showing little interest/enthusiasm; lukewarm.

Corroborated

Give support to with evidence.

Dubious

Doubt, hesitate.

Precocious

Exceptionally early in development; gifted.

Impecunious

Have little or no money; broke.

Assiduous

Showing great care and attention; meticulous.

Abstruse

Difficult to understand; obscure.

Hortatory

Trying to strongly encourage or persuade someone to do something.

Extant

Existing.

Penchant

Strong instinct or liking for something.

Promulgated

Make publicly known; promote.

Banal

No originality; obvious and boring.

Insipid

Lacking interest or enthusiasm; lacking flavor; dull.

Fortuitous

Happening by accident or by chance; not planned.

Prescient

Foreknowledge of events.

Serendipitous

Happened by chance, but in a happy/beneficial way!

Pretensions

A claim/allegation/assertions to something.

Commensurate

Proportionate; corresponding in size.

Kindred

Related (similar beliefs, feelings, etc); same ancestry.

Coalescing

To come together to form one thing.

Iconoclastic

Attack on cherished beliefs or institutions; opposing generally accepted beliefs.

Doctrinaire

Seeking to impose a doctrine (set of beliefs) without regard to practical considerations.

Heterodox

Not conforming with accepted/orthodox standards or beliefs; unconventional.

Dogmatic

Giving opinions as if they were facts.

Ubiquitous

Found everywhere.

Scanty

Small/insufficient amount.

Omnipresent

Widespread/common; found everywhere.

Meager

Lacking in quantity or quality; scanty.

Acute

Shrewd (showing a perspective understanding); severe, extreme.

Prolix

Containing too many words; very lengthy.

Ameliorate

Making something bad, better.

Quotidian

Daily, occurs every day.

Herald

Person or thing viewed as a sign that something is about to happen (usually something good).

Panacea

Remedy for all diseases or difficulties.

Harbinger

Something that foreshadows a future event (usually something bad).

Cursory

Not thorough or detailed; hasty, rapid.

Perfunctory

Minimum effort; done quickly with little effort or care.

Prophetic

Accurately describing or predicting what will happen in the future (prophet)

Affability

Friendly, good-natured, easy to talk to

Incongruous

Not harmonious; unusual or different from what it around or what is happening

Equitable

Fair and impartial

Didacticism

Philosophical approach that emphasizes imparting knowledge and morals; teach

Fastidiousness

Excessively particular, critical, demanding, and detailed

Polemical

Aggressive arguments or controversies; strongly defending something

Capricious

Sudden, unaccountable changes of mood/behavior

Acerbic

Sharp, sarcastic, direct, and witty 

Diffidence

Modesty or shyness due to a lack of self-confidence

Illiberality

Lack of openness, generosity, or tolerance; narrow minded

Fanciful

Over imaginative and unrealistic

Convoluted

Complex and difficult to follow (like sentences); twisted (applied to nouns like route or knot)

Austerity

Stern and strict

Prodigality

Lavish and wasteful

Taciturnity

Habitually reserved and uncommunicative

Volubility

Very talkative

Pellucidity

Easily understood and clear

Intrinsic

Essential; extremely important and a basic characteristic of a person or thing

Peripheral

Something that is not as important as something else; OR away from center

Prosaic

Dull, unimaginative, factual, not interesting, ordinary

Novel

New and unusual

Restive

Inability to keep still; difficult to control; stubbornly resisting control

Placid

Not easily upset or excited; even-tempered

Vociferous

Clamorous; express opinions and complaints loudly; vocal and noisy

Circumscribed

Restrict; limit something

Indecorous

Improper; behaving badly or rudely; conflicting with accepted standards or good conduct or good taste